Good in Bangladesh

Good pineapple is so refreshing and if it is not pre-cut, it takes a lot of effort to get to the fruit of the matter - tough skin to cut through and leaves to remove. All to waste. Well not for some people. The wrap on my wedding invitation is made from pineapple leaves. This paper is beautifully and proudly made by women in Bangladesh who are part of a Fair Trade Certified Co-op called Prokritree (meaning "nature" in Bangla).

"Prokritee is dedicated to hiring women who are head-of-households (widows, divorcees, or separated), have little, if any income, and have few or no assets. Paper is made of local sustainable materials such as water hyacinth, hemp and pineapple leaves. Their screen printing skills are excellent and they are constantly creating new designs. Prokritee welcomes customization (if there is time, mailing samples back and forth to Bangladesh takes awhile) and De Milo has been very pleased with our custom orders. Read more about Prokritee online at www.prokritee.com. "
From the Sustain & Heal website.

Sustain & Heal is an artisan line of beautiful letterpressed papers and invitations created by Annika Buxman in 2008.  After many telephone conversations I finally had the pleasure of meeting Annika in person last month at The National Stationery Show. She helped me create a dream invitation that I still feel good about on so many levels. 

My cousin lived in Bangladesh for a while; below are a few photographs from her time there.